David Riesman Quotes

I have learned yet again (this has been going on all my life) what folly it is to take any thing for granted without examining it skeptically.

Never believe what you cannot doubt.

Doubt everything at least once, even the sentence "Two times two is four."

Next time that somebody tells you something is true, why not say to them: 'What kind of evidence is there for that?' And if they can't give you a good answer, I hope you'll think very carefully before you believe a word they say.

As an educator, I try to get people to be fundamentally curious and to question ideas that they might have or that are shared by others. In that state of mind, they have earned a kind of inoculation against the fuzzy thinking of these weird ideas floating around out there. So rather than correct the weird ideas, I would rather them to know how to think in the first place. Then they can correct the weird idea themselves.

Never assume the obvious is true.

Being a skeptic just means being rational and empirical: thinking and seeing before believing.

I'd rather see folks doubt what's true than accept what isn't.

Have no respect whatsoever for authority; forget who said it and instead look what he starts with, where he ends up, and ask yourself, "Is it reasonable?

Skepticism is the lifeblood of scientific progress. By constantly asking whether there is a different answer, a better approach or an alternative view, scientists drive improvements and innovations that ultimately benefit everyone. It is not “antiscience” to be skeptical—it’s definitively pro-science.

Skepticism is not a position; skepticism is an approach to claims, in the same way that science is not a subject but a method.

Skepticism is the highest duty and blind faith the one unpardonable sin.

If you don't ask the right question, every answer seems wrong -

I don't want you to trust me, I want you to question everything I say.

Do not allow yourselves to be deceived: Great Minds are Skeptical.

Only the most uncritical minds are free from doubt.

Questioning is the piety of thought.

Skepticism does not preserve us from foolhardy deeds.

Philosophy begins when one learns to doubt -- particularly to doubt one's cherished beliefs, one's dogmas and one's axioms.

My investment of time, as an educator, in my judgment, is best served teaching people how to think about the world around them. Teach them how to pose a question. How to judge whether one thing is true versus another.

No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof.

The "passion for incredulity" can produce as much self-deception as the uncritical will to believe.

Critical thinking is to a liberal education as faith is to religion. ... the converse was true also - faith is to a liberal education as critical thinking is to religion, irrelevant and even damaging.

At the very smallest wheel of our reasoning it is possible for a handful of questions to break the bank of our answers.

Instead of assuming everything you're being told is the truth, ask plenty of questions.